Howling Dead

by M. H. Bonham

  “They gave me a choice,” he said with a shrug. “I took what was most sensible—as you should have.”

  Kira felt anger well up in her throat. “You bastard. You betrayed a friend. Don’t you know what happened? Susan is dead, and they’re going to kill both me and Spaz. And it’ll be your fault...”

  Lizard blanched for a moment, but then his gold eyes hardened. “It’s not my fault, Kira. It’s a matter of choices—you just made the wrong one.”

  Bob laughed and pushed her forward. “Since you like the little jap, you can hang out with him for while.”

  He opened the door and shoved her in. As it slammed shut, Kira stumbled into the darkness and nearly retched from the stench. The place smelled of blood, bowels, sweat, urine, and fear. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw Spaz curled up in a fetal position on a filthy mattress in the corner. He was bound and gagged, cradling what was left of his arm with his good hand and whimpering.

  “Christ, Spaz,” she said, coming over to him. She was half-filled with revulsion at the sight of him. What had they done to him? Her nose caught a whiff of something else—rotting flesh. Was he becoming gangrenous? The thought terrified her. Even if she managed to save him, there was a terrible chance that he might still die from the infection.

  Kira? She heard his voice clearly through his link into the Enchanted Forest.

  “It’s me, save your energy,” Kira said. She walked over and pulled the blindfold and gag off him.

  “I feel sick,” Spaz said. “I didn’t mean for you to get captured.”

  Kira frowned. Despite her fear, she looked over the room. “Well, I’m not taking this lying down,” she said. “What does Bob want from you?”

  “The main encryption for the Forest,” Spaz said. “They’ve been trying to wear me down and get in my head. So far it hasn’t worked.”

  “The main encryption?” Kira asked.

  “The software’s locks require some very sophisticated keys. Without the keys, they don’t have full access to it.”

  “Why don’t they decompile it?”

  “They can’t get to it. It’s the brains behind the Forest. They’ve tried tampering with it, but once they screw with a memory location, another piece of code wipes it out and reloads it. In fact, the whole thing is set up that way.”

  “Fucking genius, Spaz. And not even Randy can get at it?”

  Spaz shook his head. “No.” He paused. “Can you get rid of the duct tape on my arms?”

  Kira approached slowly. “It’s going to hurt,” she announced after studying the tape.

  “Like it doesn’t hurt already?”

  “Stay still,” Kira said. She picked at the duct tape, trying desperately not to show her disgust. Her wolf sense of smell couldn’t ignore the scent of rotting flesh and she wanted to gag. Her short fingernails had trouble picking at an edge of the tape. She worked for a while, cursing silently and listening to Spaz’s raspy breath. Finally, she got her fingers around a piece. “This is going to hurt.”

  “Pull now.”

  Kira pulled and the tape snapped away. Around and around she pulled the tape. When it was at last on bare skin, she winced as she tugged. Spaz bit his lip so hard that he drew blood, but she had to hand it to him—he did not scream.

  “I’m so thirsty,” he said, licking his dry lips and closing his eyes. “Kira, what are we going to do?”

  Kira looked around. There wasn’t much here—they were in what she guessed had been a storage closet at one time. There was what looked to be a rack with an old router in it. The screws were out and it was half off the rack; worthless except as a boat anchor. She walked up to the door and listened.

  “When do you think you’ll have access?” Bob was saying. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “I don’t know,” Lizard said. “I can’t hack into any of it. He’s a better spider than any of us—that’s why he did the architecture.”

  “And if he won’t tell, then he’s useless to us unless you can hack his brain,” Bob said. “And now the bitch has come looking for him, which means the cops and Alaric aren’t too far behind.”

  “Why don’t you use Kira?” Lizard said. “She obviously cares about him—maybe he’ll spill to save her life.”

  Kira turned to Spaz. “The conversation is turning nasty. Can you run?”

  “I can barely walk, much less run.”

  She closed her eyes. “Wait a second—can you get into Denver’s police computers?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So, tell them where you are.”

  “I don’t know where I am.”

  “But I do,” Kira said. “Send a message to Detective Jim Walking Bear—I wish I had his number memorized.”

  “Home or cell?” Spaz said. “Why don’t I just get hold of Denver Dispatch?”

  “They won’t know what they’re up against.”

  “And we do?”

  “Good point. Tell them we’re at the Intermountain warehouse off 6th Avenue.”

  At that moment, they heard the click of the door unlocking.

  CHAPTER 65

  Everything happened so fast that Kira couldn’t keep track of it all. The doorknob turned. Kira found herself transmuted and flying toward Lizard and Bob in her werewolf form. Her teeth clamped onto Lizard’s throat as she bowled him over. The She-Wolf took complete control and ripped the throat out of the man who had once been her friend, and she could only watch in horror.

  Before she knew it, Bob was on top of her in wolf form as well, slashing his powerful canines into her neck. She screamed loudly as his massive teeth ripped through her hide. Instinctively, she raised her leg and shoved her shoulder between her neck and his teeth.

  There was a loud thud and suddenly Kira was free. She looked up to see Spaz standing with a router in his hand, holding it by the handle. He had somehow found the strength to pick up a rack-mounted router and slam it into Bob. Bob shook his wolf head as though trying to shake off a headache. He snarled and leapt at Spaz. Spaz held up the router to try to defend himself, but was too weak and slow. Kira leapt at Bob and tore into his thickly furred neck.

  “Run!” shouted Spaz.

  Kira needed no urging. Despite the limp, she turned and ran. Asshole! She shouted mentally to Bob. You’re a coward!

  Bitch! shouted Bob as he followed her. He chased her through the hallway and deep into the building. Most of the warehouse was empty except for some pallets on the loading dock that were marked as servers. The door to the dock was open and there was a truck pulled up to it.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Two werewolves in human form stood next to the cartons of computer equipment.

  Kira didn’t dare stop as she ran past them; she hit the loading dock, twisted to the left and leapt clear of the truck. Bob was right behind her. She noted with some satisfaction that he also had a limp.

  A shot rang out, and she fell heavily, as though something had knocked the wind out of her. Her shoulder and chest burned as she struggled to get up and keep moving, but she couldn’t. Her breath came out in rasps and gurgles.

  Her head spun. She found herself in an ever-widening pool of blood. Bob, in his werewolf form, was gloating over her when she raised her head.

  “Shall I kill her?” the lycanthrope said, pointing the gun at her head.

  Wait, said Bob. Make her suffer a bit for all the trouble she’s been.

  You were afraid to challenge Alaric for Alpha, Kira said forcing each word out.

  No, bitch. You haven’t any clue what’s been going on, have you? I knew I had to muster as many lycanthropes behind me as I could, so I began the rogue lycanthropes. And then, you and Susan showed up.

  You were afraid we’d find the site, Kira said slowly. We didn’t, but you attacked us anyway. But you didn’t expect me to live or for the cops to get there so soon.

  It was too close to the Mall. I should’ve known better. Bob paused and smiled a wolfy grin. I won’t make that mistake again. He drew his lips back,
ready to take the fatal chomp.

  Kira snapped, catching the underside of his neck, her teeth slicing through fur, skin, veins, and arteries. Bob screamed in pain and rage, shaking his neck. There was another shot, but this time the bullet went wide. The lycanthrope went down as Spaz hit him with a spare piece of pipe.

  Bob tried to shake her hold on him. His paws braced himself against her torn body. But the more he pushed, the more damage she did. His paws raked against her, but Kira still hung on.

  Suddenly, Spaz screamed and dropped to the ground, rolling himself in a ball. From out of the darkness came what appeared to Kira to be an army of wolves. Werewolves. Leading them was none other than Alaric. He leapt on Bob, knocking him from Kira’s grip, and tore into the werewolf. The other werewolves streamed into the building, attacking whatever they found. As Kira began to sink into unconsciousness, she thought she heard sirens.

  CHAPTER 66

  Kira awoke to sunlight streaming in through the windows. She lay in a half-conscious state for a long while, vaguely aware of the scents of pine boughs and wood. At first, she thought she was back in the Enchanted Forest, and her mind filled in the trees and the darkness; but as she came to, she realized she was lying on a couch and wrapped in a blanket, close to a crackling fire in a fireplace.

  Kira blinked as her eyesight became clearer. She was no longer in wolf form, but she ached all over. She wasn’t naked, and for that, she was thankful. Someone had dressed her in a soft flannel nightgown. Kira winced as she looked at the flowers on it. She’d never have been caught dead in such a frilly thing, but then, maybe that’s all they had.

  She was in a cabin somewhere in a forest—perhaps even in the mountains. To her lower-altitude lungs, the air felt dryer and thinner here. The furniture was unmistakably masculine—hewn log furniture with strong plaid motifs. And wolves. There were paintings and photographs of wolves everywhere.

  Kira craned her neck and felt a stab of pain. Feeling her neck, she touched sutures that ran down the front of her body. She was tender there and from what she could tell, she would have some pretty ugly bruising for a while. The last thing she remembered was Alaric tearing into Bob, and then sirens. Had the cops arrived?

  The door to the cabin swung open and a cold breeze wafted through. She nestled deeper into the blankets. Alaric walked in with a bundle of wood in his arms and thumped his feet against the mat indoors, shaking off mud and dirt. “You’re up,” he said, grinning. “The doctor said you’d be coming around today.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  “Only two days,” Alaric said. “It was touch and go for a time, until you changed back to human form. You were really chewed up.”

  “Yeah,” Kira said chagrined. “I hope I gave as good as I got.”

  Alaric laughed. “That you did. I just finished the job. You’d already ripped out Marks’ throat.” He turned and put one of the logs on the fire and stoked it.

  “Where am I?”

  “You like it?”

  Kira nodded. “Homey.”

  “It should be. It’s my home,” Alaric said.

  “I thought you lived in Denver.”

  He shook his head. “My businesses are in Denver, but my home is here. The forest calls to me, as it does anyone with werewolf blood.”

  “There’s no link to the Forest here,” Kira said after trying to access it.

  “Nope—not close enough to the transmitters. I think the closest Intermountain antenna is on Lookout Mountain, and we’re not in good sight range.”

  “Luddite,” Kira said.

  “No, I just know when to keep technology at arm’s length.” He left her to go into the kitchen. “You hungry?”

  “Starved.”

  “Tea okay? My espresso machine’s on the fritz.”

  Kira laughed. “Sure that’s fine. Where’s Spaz?”

  “I’m not sure how much you remember. The cops came shortly after I killed Marks. The police captured your friend. We barely escaped with you.”

  “I’d imagine he’s telling some pretty amazing stories no one will believe,” Kira said.

  “Nobody except that cop friend of yours,” said Alaric. Kira noted the look in his eyes. “We’ll have to figure how to get him out of jail before the next full moon. It’ll be hard to explain when he turns into a wolf, and even harder when his hand grows back.”

  “Grows back?” Kira stared at him.

  “Tagura’s a werewolf now. He’ll have the same recuperative powers you have. Werewolves don’t stay maimed or we couldn’t survive. The moon will heal him when it’s full again.”

  “We don’t have much time, then.”

  “No and he’s in quite dubious company. You know Homeland Security wants him for identity theft, among other crimes?” The teakettle whistled and Alaric poured the hot water into a mug with a teabag. “Leftover sandwiches okay?”

  “Fine. You’re lecturing me on dubious company?” Kira smirked. “Two words: Cathal Murphy.”

  “I never said lycanthropes weren’t a little rough.” He brought the tea and sandwiches over to her.

  Kira grabbed the first sandwich and bit in. She’d never thought ham could taste so good.

  “So, would you like to tell me how you knew Marks was the one who attacked you?”

  “Easy—Spaz told me.” She chuckled at his look. “See, Spaz, along with all my MIT pals, had created the Enchanted Forest, but they needed a cool interface for it. That’s when Spaz started learning about the hi-rFreq bandwidth that Northrop’s Skunkworks had developed. Spaz wasn’t the network guru—Randy Green was. They somehow positioned themselves as top contractors and got in.”

  “What about security clearances? Surely something would’ve shown up.”

  “Piece of cake for someone like Spaz. He hacked himself into the databases and made himself squeaky clean, and did that for Randy too. Somewhere along the way, they discovered EPRE, TPRE, and CPI. That network was being used by the military for heads-up thought recognition, and the military refined the headsets. They came away from the contact with some pretty sophisticated equipment.

  “One of the big things Spaz must have discovered but kept under wraps was that there was a certain amount of biofeedback with the headset. It could actually alter thought patterns and tap into latent telepathic talent in people. The same talent the werewolves exploit.”

  “A machine that can mimic our telepathy?”

  Kira nodded. “I think Spaz kept that to himself. A few sessions within his Enchanted Forest brought him around to actually seeing the Forest in his dreams and eventually to his conscious mind. Who knows how many sessions he had before it happened, but it eventually did. The werewolves, however, accidentally discovered the Forest on their own. Its bandwidth is so close to the actual telepathic transmissions that I’m sure the werewolves who stumbled onto it showed others how to plug in, like I showed you.

  “At some point after this, I think Bob Marks must have approached Spaz and Randy to make the Enchanted Forest more accessible for them, preferably through a big telecom who owned a huge portion of the Internet backbone. In truth, I’m really not sure who approached whom, but it was a bad match. Marks saw the potential and decided to exploit it.”

  “But Tagura had locked out the vital areas,” Alaric said. “But I don’t get it. Why wasn’t the military after this?”

  Kira chuckled. “The military probably had another name for the technology. Private companies come out with new bandwidths all the time. Give it an innocuous name and keep it below their scan. No mention of TPRE, EPRE, or CPI.” She sighed and closed her eyes, cradling the tea mug in her hands. “I still don’t know how you found me.”

  Alaric smiled wryly. “You’re not the only one who can use the Forest.”

  “You?” Kira was impressed.

  “Well, not exactly.” He shrugged. “I had some of the werewolf geeks search for your appearance. We were able to track according to some Intermountain IP numbers. Bob wasn’t the only werewo
lf at Intermountain, you know.”

  “I should thank you,” Kira said. “Marks would’ve killed me.”

  “Anything for my mate.”

  “Alaric, I— I...” A guilty thought about Jim flitted through her mind.

  “Shhh,” Alaric replied. “We’ll sort it out later. In the meantime, get some rest.”

  Kira let him take the mug from her hands. She didn’t even object when he pulled the blanket over her shoulders and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to be married to the Alpha of a pack, she thought as she drifted off to sleep. At least until she figured out how to reverse the lycanthropy.